NECA 7″ Gipsy Danger

Pacific Rim’s hero Jaeger, the US of A’s proud Gipsy Danger. The main mecha’s always gotta be the simplest and most well-rounded robot of the bunch.

NECA’s first installment in this franchise fell short of many collector’s expectations and didn’t really achieve popularity until after the movie hit theaters in the first place.

But that didn’t stop it from having its prices skyrocket to outrageous margins. It’s gotten to the point where Gipsy is the most highly coveted piece of Series 1, being almost double the price of its fellow Jaeger Crimson Typhoon.

As always, NECA doesn’t disappoint with the sculpt. All the Jaegers and Kaiju are based directly off the CGI models, simply scaled down and somewhat simplified for a 7 inch figure.

The proportions and mechanical details are all just about spot-on though. It looks like Gipsy Danger.

I went ahead and [naturally] added some paint detail on my own, with various gunmetal bits (such as the coolant vents and rear jets) as well as painting the visor gold and adding a more defined yellow to the center of the uni-beam turbine.

Originally, not just for myself but for many other collectors, I’m sure a big turn-off for this figure was the sloppy paint work on the yellow visor. NECA seems to do rather poorly with the eyes, as we’ve experienced already with Crimson Typhoon.

A quick fix involved some gold acrylic paint applied with a toothpick over the visor, and I have to say – it makes a world of difference. Unbelievable that it changes the look and feel of the figure so much.

Gipsy features some pretty nice and complex mechanical detail all around, though some could argue that it’s rather off-putting with the large amounts of flat armor.

I added some gunmetal detailing to much of the complex parts, though they originally come in black with a silver dry-brushed finish.

Gipsy’s general design just screams a lot of flat armor surface area and scattered clumps of mechanical intricacy. Not that any of the Jaegers are much different, but Gipsy takes it Up to Eleven.

I’ve seen some complaints about the too-plain blue armor and how it looks toy-ish and off, but to be honest, it really isn’t that bad in person.

Said complaints also revolve around the half-assed weathering attempt, but I can’t see it looking that far off from the newer Jaegers.

The paint in general isn’t too bad, and I think it captures the feel of our American Hero quite well. Some of the smaller areas, especially with the yellow (see: original visor and leg detail) are rather sloppy, but those can either be easily fixed or overlooked.

Decals and markings are also pretty crisp and clear; no complaints here.

Although articulation on this thing is laughable.

I can’t really say it does much better than a static statue, but I hate to say that I’ve seen worse on things that…well, weren’t supposed to be statues.

For starters, in place of a waist, it has the usual replace-waist-with-torso-turn thing going on. Not bad at all, given that it’s a ball joint in there, which allows for some extensive chest movement.

Here we have about the full range of motion for the legs. They can’t really go much further out than that, and the toes don’t really point downwards. But hey, it has a ball-jointed ankle so that’s a point over Crimson.

Also worth nothing is that Gipsy features some funky heel articulation.

Why it’ll ever need to point the heel upwards is beyond me, but this seems like a hardcore wasted joint on NECA’s part. Investments would’ve been better spend having the toes or entire feet point downwards more.

The biggest articulation gripe I have with Gipsy lies in its upper legs though. The way it’s designed, the armor flaps that extend upwards from the thighs more or less restrict the outwards leg movement from the hip, meaning wide-stance dynamic posing is just about out the window for this figure.

So naturally, I had to make some adjustments.

I went ahead and measured out about 3 centimeters of the extra flap armor on the thigh, and shaved it down to allow more clearance for the legs going outwards from the hip.

It ended up working, though only ever so slightly. The design still hinders it, but at least I have a little peace of mind in somewhat remedying the issue. I tried to paint away the blemish from the cut material as best I could, but in the end it’s hardly noticeable anyways.

Elbow bend power maxed out. Yeah, I’m not even kidding here.

Yes, there is a difference in the pictures. I know, even juxtaposed it’s hard to tell.

Seriously, NECA, really? Did you guys really make this happen? Now, I’ll be fair and say that yes, this is the first Pacific Rim figure released and therefore there’s not much to really compare the quality to, but you guys aren’t amateur figure producers. We could’ve gotten better than a 5 degree elbow bend.

Action poses involving the arms now look pretty distinctly…un-action-y.

I’m pretty disappointed by this, but I suppose nothing can really be done about it. The flaw is in Gipsy’s own design – the forearm armor is too bulky and literally gets in the way of the arm bending.

A way to fix this is to extend the joint itself (make it double jointed for more and longer bends) or bring the forearm armor further out. Either way, it’s beyond my range of abilities for modding, so I suppose I’ll have to accept what I’m given.

No extra accessories or optional hands to be seen or heard of. And given the elbows, you can’t even pull off the Elbow Rocket Punch.

Some consolation at least, in that the Battle Damaged Gipsy in Series 2 got some Chain Swords. But those looked sub-par in pictures, not sure how well they are in person.

Generally, the above pose is really what will define Gipsy the most on the shelf. Given the general lack of articulation, your best bet is to have her bearing her chest pridefully and openly.

I can’t say much about the painting or sculpting though; I rate both fairly highly, given that the paint is relatively easy to remedy.

Overall, like its sister Jaeger Crimson Typhoon and even the Series 2 Striker Eureka, Gipsy is meant more for display than play. The articulation is obviously the main culprit of this, but to be honest I’m actually pretty content with what it is.

As mentioned before, I’m genuinely impressed and pleased with the general figure sculpt and the quality and color of the paint. Even without being able to pull off any insane ROCKETO FISTO PUNCHO poses, Gipsy Danger can hold its own as a great display piece.